One of US richest finds himself on the NY hot seat

At auctions, Cohen became known for paying full price — and for pulling the trigger with the same cool he brought to managing his hedge fund.

“Steve is so good because he does not have his ego tied up in each trade,” longtime investor George Fox told The New York Times in 2005. “He is an anomaly in this business because he hasn’t had three good years, he has had 23 good years.”

This year, Cohen’s tastes turned toward baseball. He made serious run at ownership of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Though he didn’t win the team, Cohen didn’t completely strike out. The Mets sold him a minority share as the owners sought to recover from being duped in Bernard Madoff‘s Ponzi scheme.

Cohen has a philanthropic streak, too. He serves on the board of the Robin Hood Foundation, a charity targeting poverty in New York.

But Cohen has been haunted by his past. His ex-wife sued him in 2009, claiming he hid assets to avoid paying a larger divorce settlement.

The suit’s most sensational allegation was that Cohen had confided to her that he made $20 million after receiving an advance tip that General Electric was set to buy RCA in 1985.

Cohen got the tip from a fellow Wharton graduate “as part of an effort to take care of one another,” the suit alleged. “They sometimes referred to their group of friends as the Wharton mafia.”

Lawyers for Cohen asked a judge to throw out the suit, saying it was filed “to harass and generate media attention against Mr. Cohen.” A judge agreed, finding the allegations were too old and unsubstantiated for the case to go forward.